PUKALANI, Maui — Lahainaluna High School athletic director Joe Balangitao didn't start out by thinking about taking over as the Maui Interscholastic League's executive director, but he headed up his first meeting in just that role yesterday at the MIL athletic directors meeting at Kamehameha Schools-Maui.

''The ironic thing was that it wasn't in my long-term plans to be the executive director,'' Balangitao said to The Maui News.

Balangitao, 55 and who has served as the Lunas' athletic director for just shy of seven years, said he talked over the requirements and job responsibilities with outgoing MIL executive director Stephen Kim before deciding it was a can't-lose opportunity.

''(The athletic side) is only half the job - you have all these other things you've got to do also it's a lot of responsibility,'' Balangitao said. ''I talked to my wife and she told me to go for it, because to me it was a win-win situation — if I didn't get the job, I still had Lahainaluna and I love it at Lahainaluna, and if I got the job, then that would be good also and I could help the league.

''You know, I just feel blessed and humbled to be able to get this job. I just hope that we can help the league grow and prosper. I've got some big shoes to fill.''

Kim, 64, served as MIL executive director for the last 17 years before retiring in December. He spent more than 40 years in athletics, starting the wrestling program at Saint Louis School before joining the Army, and later coaching at Kalani and Kaiser before coming to the MIL.

Kim said the league underwent a lot of changes during his tenure.

''Night and day,'' Kim said when asked to compare the league today to when he started the job. ''We didn't have that many schools and we didn't have that many sports.

''We added things like girls water polo and judo for both boys and girls. We added a lot of JV sports and of course the girls (athletics), that was our main thrust of what we were doing — it almost doubled our sports. And just recently going Division I and Division II (the league has) changed a lot. I kind of feel sorry for the ADs — they're never home on the weekends and Thursday night on, it's a 12-hour day for them or maybe longer. But again, we get a lot of help from the community.''

Four athletic directors applied for the position in addition to some school principals, which contributed to the length of the selection process, according to Kim.

In addition to working at Lahainaluna, Balangitao has coached football at Baldwin and had teaching stints at Maui High and Kihei School prior to that.

''The good thing about Joe is his contacts, having lived and been raised on Maui, having coached all this time,'' Kim said. ''All the kids that were coached by him, all the people who helped while he was at Baldwin and at Lahainaluna now — he has a good tie-in to the community.

''The other thing for him is, I would say, humility and persistence. If he feels something's not right, he'll try to straighten that out.''

For now, Balangitao is juggling his new position while still handling things at Lahainaluna until his replacement is found.

''I told them that I basically will do the MIL in the morning and in the afternoons, I'll go out to Lahaina and do my Lahainaluna stuff,'' Balangitao said. ''I told them as soon as they can get someone to fill the Lahainaluna position, that would be great. Hopefully (by) October, they can get someone out there.

''It was kind of a domino effect to find somebody to take my place — my assistant was a counselor there and that's a pretty important position over there and it would affect the counseling department. I didn't want to do that to the school, so I told them I'd help out until they could get a full-time guy there.''

Kim will also be on hand one or two afternoons per week to help with the transition, and he's looking forward to his new role as a volunteer.

''Sure, I'll feel a little twang initially, but they can always use help with volunteers,'' he said. ''I guess that's basically what I'll be doing — helping Joe voluntarily, not in a paid status or anything — but just to give him a hand, because he's going to be so busy trying to close up Lahainaluna and start at this post, especially since he's also the football coordinator and here it is (almost) football season.''

Added Balangitao: ''That will be great, because he'll be around to answer questions and help fill in for me, so that kind of put things at ease for me. That's always nice to know you have somebody with the knowledge and experience to help you out.''

Issues such as new student-athlete transfer rules and scheduling conflicts will require immediate attention as the new school year approaches, and Balangitao is grateful to have the help of his fellow MIL athletic directors, whom he says work well together thanks to open communication and different areas of expertise.

''We've got a good group of athletic directors — we have 13 (in all),'' Balangitao said. ''I've been around to conferences and stuff in the state, and I think our group of ADs on Maui — and I may be biased — we try to do what's best for the kids, you know, then the MIL and then our own schools.

''I think what makes us different is we look at the big picture, not just about our school or our kids, but the kids in Maui County.''

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